


S T A R B O Y S

by invalidgoblin



Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Canon Universe, Christianity, Cuban Lance, During season 2, Gender-Neutral Pronouns for Pidge | Katie Holt, Japanese Keith (Voltron), Kinda, M/M, Minor Injuries, Season 2 spoilers, soft fic, trans keith
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-06-12
Updated: 2017-07-23
Packaged: 2018-11-13 11:07:11
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 6
Words: 6,641
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11183841
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/invalidgoblin/pseuds/invalidgoblin
Summary: Keith is 17. He’s a Paladin of Voltron. He has found a home among the stars. No one knows that his name was once Keiko. No one knows that he’s a boy who likes boys.Lance is 17. Up in a flying castle ship in space, he is free from the scrutiny of his father’s judging gaze. Lance smiles widely as he announces to Hunk that he’s bisexual, and yet he still gravitates towards feminine looking creatures, as though his father is still watching. Lance is a Paladin of Voltron, and he is trying to be okay with being a boy who likes boys.





	1. How They Came To Be

Keith is 6. His name is Keiko, and he’s a girl. He’s standing over his father’s dead body before it goes into a furnace. A social services worker stands behind him and pats him on the shoulder. She’s young and smells sickly sweet. He asks her later and finds out that that smell is perfume. Keith doesn’t think that his mother would wear perfume. He doesn’t know though; he doesn’t really have a mother. He guesses that he doesn’t really have a father either. Huh.

Lance is 6. He has a crush on a boy in his kindergarten class. He tells his mother when she picks him up that day, and she shushes him with a sad look in her eyes. She makes him promise that he won’t tell his father. Lance asks why. She explains that his father trusts God, and God doesn’t smile upon boys who like boys. Lance doesn’t understand, but he hates seeing his father angry. 

Keith is 12. He’s been bounced from foster home to foster home for six years and has never quite settled. He’s learned to fight since the bigger kids always beat him up. He’s too quiet for loud places and too soft for hard fists. He’s starting wearing sports bras that are too small and calling himself Keith. Right now he hears his foster father banging on his door, screaming at him to get downstairs before he breaks his goddamn arm. Keith’s packing a bag; he needs to run from this home, from all the foster homes he’s ever been in, from all the people who look at him with disgust when he tells them he’s a boy, and that he likes boys too.

Lance is 12. He has his first girlfriend and can see the relief in his father’s eyes when he tells him. His papa says that he was a little worried, what with Lance being so feminine and all. Except he didn’t say feminine. He said faggy. And that was okay to him because _clearly_ , Lance wasn’t gay. Right? No. Lance wasn’t gay. He liked girls, he did. He liked them a lot. But sometimes, juts sometimes, his breath caught in is throat when he saw a boy changing in the locker room, or when a particularly attractive male classmate passed him in the hall. But his papa’s eyes and words of God make Lance promise himself that he’ll never tell him.

Keith is 16. He’s going to the Galaxy Garrison, and fuck if he’s not glad to finally be out of foster care. He ran for a while, but he couldn’t survive on his own. Shiro’s family was great and all, but Keith still feels wrong there. He wants a fresh start, one where no one knows his old name and that he binds relentlessly. He needs his own home. Keith hopes to find it in the stars.

Lance is 16. Tomorrow he leaves for the Galaxy Garrison, but tonight he’s sitting on a park bench with a boy from his class. The boy, Arin, reaches out to hold his hand. Lance flinches away on instinct, and mutter something about God. Arin tells him that if God cares about us, then he would want Lance to be happy. If boys make Lance happy, and God doesn’t like that, then he can go fuck himself. Suddenly Lance is kissing Arin, and he doesn’t give a rat’s ass what God thinks.

Keith is 17. He’s a Paladin of Voltron. He has found a home among the stars. No one knows that his name was once Keiko. No one knows that he’s a boy who likes boys.

Lance is 17. Up in a flying castle ship in space, he is free from the scrutiny of his father’s judging gaze. Lance smiles widely as he announces to Hunk that he’s bisexual, and yet he still gravitates towards feminine looking creatures, as though his father is still watching. Lance is a Paladin of Voltron, and he is trying to be okay with being a boy who likes boys.


	2. Lance McClain

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> All the colours of the universe live in your eyes.

This felt peaceful. Amongst the blood and war, this was nice. This simple supply mission, in which Keith and Lance walked swiftly side-by-side, keeping up an easy conversation. They had been dropped off on an uninhabited planet, mostly just grass and caves. Coran was curious as to if the crystals said caves harbored could be used as a temporary or backup power source and had sent the two paladins to get samples he could test. Like Keith said, easy.

Peaceful. The dull yellow grass swayed in the gentle breeze, and Keith felt the tension in his shoulders melt away as Lance talked on about his family back home. Lance liked doing that; talking about home. He would talk about his mother’s cooking and his younger brother’s favourite TV show and his older sister’s art skills. He would talk about anything and everything except his father, and Keith never bothered to ask why. He wondered, but he never pushed Lance to say more than the easy string of words that escaped his lips when talking around the subject. Keith didn’t mind all that much anyway. 

At first, he had found it annoying, Lance’s constant talking. It reminded him of the malicious hum of voices that had always infected every corner of every foster home he’d ever been to. But as time continued, Keith had made the distinction. Lance’s voice was soft and smooth, like honey running off a spoon. He talked to empty his head and fill the air with all the good memories he could muster. There was nothing malicious about the way Lance talked. In fact, Keith had found himself to be strangely lonely without the soft upbeat voice filling the air. Lance had a way of making people feel warm with his presence, and Keith realized, soon after being accustomed to his presence, how cold he had always been.

Lance’s eyes twinkled as he recalled a time that he and his younger brother Anton had found a group of baby turtles that were heading towards the water. How he had stopped Anton from picking them up and insisted that they just watch. Keith listened and focused on Lance’s face, which glowed golden under the planet’s setting suns.

Lance looked over and met Keith’s eyes, and almost immediately a blush rose onto his cheeks, tinting them a deep magenta colour. He looked away quickly, just in time to catch a glimpse of the upcoming cave that they had been searching for.

“Oh wow, would you, uh, look at that, heRE WE ARE,” Lance’s voice unnaturally jumped in volume and octave as he squeaked out the obvious, and Keith just smiled at the awkward nature of his actions. Keith had long since gotten over being embarrassed about anything; it just wasn’t worth the effort anymore.

He follows Lance into the mouth of the cave, which seems to glow a deep turquoise as if a light poured from every pore of the rock. Crystals dot the walls, the light reflecting off of them to create a luminescent effect that encompasses the whole cavern in this beautiful light. Lance looks around in complete awe, the colour bouncing off his skin as if he was made to be right here, right now. In Keith’s opinion, he looked more beautiful than the cave did. 

And just as Keith startled himself with thoughts of Lance that were significantly blunter than those he had felt before, Lance opened his mouth again, the same nervous tone still present in his voice, if not a bit more muted than before.

“Coran said that the crystal we’re looking for is, like, _different_ than these ones.”

Keith nodded slightly and followed Lance as he moved deeper into the cave.

“Different how?”

Lance began inspecting different crystals as if trying to figure that out himself.

“I don’t know. He just said that we’ll ‘know when we see it’, whatever that means.”

And so they go deeper.

And it’s nice.

It’s nice because Lance keeps talking, keeps telling stories that keep Keith from getting bored as they examine every crystal that looks a little different than the rest. It’s nice because the light reflecting off each gem made Lance’s skin glow like he was the god of this place. Keith’s lips begin to move as if to tell him that, but he catches himself before he says anything.

After 45 or so minutes of inspecting every crystal that has a slightly different shape or tint, Lance turns a corner and gasps, rushing towards whatever caused his rash actions.

Keith, however, notices something that Lance did not. Lance was looking up when he made his discovery, whereas Keith was looking down, searching for peculiar jewels on the ground that they might have missed. He didn’t find anything, but he did see a crevice in the cave floor, one about the size of person or two, and one that Lance was absolutely going to fall down if he didn’t stop now.

Keith swooped forward, his arms reaching out towards Lance and pulling him away from the edge of the hole and into himself. The shock of the sudden movement caused them both to fall down, Lance landing on top of Keith’s chest with a start. The questioning look in his eyes was enough to signal for Keith to point towards the hole, still too out of breath from the fall to properly enunciate the reason for his actions.

Lance looked to where Keith was pointing, mouth forming an ‘o’ shape as he realized what would have happened had Keith not intervened. He looked back towards the boy that was still pinned under him and gave him a bashful and apologetic look before standing up. He offered Keith a hand, seemingly as a peace offering for nearly giving him a heart attack.

Keith huffed and took it, pulling himself off the ground before crossing his arms, still quite agitated from the whole ordeal. 

“What did you see that was so important that you almost rushed straight into a pit?” 

The blush from earlier returned to Lance’s cheeks as he sheepishly pointed towards the wall across from them, where a beautiful white crystal lay lodged in the stone, casting light of every colour out of it.

“That.”

Keith quickly understood, as had Lance, that this is what they were sent here to retrieve.

“Oh.”

The two of them looked at each other in mutual understanding, and carefully shimmied along the edge of the wall where the ground was still intact. Once they reached the other side, Lance rushed towards the stone like a child to a candy store, touching it so lightly, as if it might break at the slightest tap. 

Keith watched him, watched the innocence that Lance exuded culminate in these delicate and childlike actions, watched as this pure being basked in the presence of something with equal beauty. Keith looks at Lance and takes in how soft he is now without all the hard edges he tries to put up. It reminds Keith of how he was before all the shit he went through. 

It makes Keith realize that Lance McClain is something he needs to protect.

Lance turns to look at Keith, gesturing him towards the crystal with such passionate excitement. As Keith approaches, he sees every colour in the universe in Lance’s eyes.


	3. Keith Kogane

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Your heart is the universe's brightest star.

This was torture. This was all the chaos raining down on Lance in one moment, crushing his lungs and lighting his heart aflame with agony.

This was a battle, one that, yes, had been expected, but was still just as brutal as a surprise attack. When Allura had received the distress signal from a planet a few solar systems away, the team had been quick to act, despite the inhabitant's warnings of large fleets and heavy fire. 

It had only taken them a few ticks to arrive at the scene, which was gruesome, to say the least. You could tell that the planet had once been mostly desert, a few larger dirt building still standing. Now, however, almost half the planet was hot glass, having been transformed and solidified by the unrelenting laser fire of the Galra. 

Lance watched from Blue for a moment, almost in awe of the horrific destruction that took place. He had seen planets ruined before, but he had never seen one that had been so ravished by its own nature of refusing to burn. Instead, it turned to a substance unable to sustain any form of life. He feared for the planet’s people, even though they were said to be capable fighters. He didn’t quite believe that any race was capable enough to recover from such tragedy.

Snapping back into the reality of battle, Lance maneuvered Blue towards the group, which was targeting fire on one of the larger ships ion cannons. He was about to try and get in his own round of shots when Shiro’s voice rung through his headset. 

“Lance and Keith, you two give the citizens cover from the ground. We need more brute force up here. Go!” 

Lance quickly nodded and followed Red obediently to the surface, covering Keith with beams of ice as he tried to burn sentry ships that were trying to land. Luckily Keith stopped once they reached the ground, probably just as wary as Lance was of the damage they should avoid furthering down below.

Once they landed, Lance quickly hopped out of Blue and started rushing towards cover and the few standing buildings, attempting to seek out innocents that could be caught in the crossfire, or simply another casualty of the relentless Galra attacks. 

From the ground, Lance could see what the planet had once looked like a little better. The surface was warm and dry and had little but cacti-like objects in terms of plant life. An inspection of the plants proved them to be more like succulents, teeming with cool liquid, though these particular ones were mostly bright blue and pink in colour. The ground was predominantly rock and sand, reminding Lance of when he had visited his aunt in Arizona back on Earth. The structures were made of large columns of stone, connected with something that appeared to be mud. Lance made few other observations on his run to the nearest shelter, but he did come to the conclusion that this planet had once been uniquely beautiful. 

He rounded the corner of a particularly tall building, and here he found a group of Truncata, which Allura had informed him was the name of the planet’s native race. They did not look like the Jawa from Star Wars (which admittedly Lance had expected), but rather like an extension of the planet. They were six to seven feet tall and looked almost plant-like. They appeared to be made of columns of thick plant matter, all with tough skin in a deep green palette. It seemed as though they were genderless, and they had few humanoid features safe for eyes and a mouth. 

Lance rushed up to them, telling them of his status on team Voltron and encouraging them to come with him to a safe location where the Castle Ship could pick them up. Some of the smaller one’s quickly complied, while the larger Truncata insisted they stay behind and help protect their home. 

Lance was just about ready to pull out his hair at the stubbornness of most of the group, when Keith suddenly ran in, looking slightly frazzled. 

“Look, you guys have to move NOW,” his voice commanded their attention, and even got some of the stubborn ones to move closer to Lance, “There’s a large group of sentries coming this way, and we don’t have time to fight them off. We need to get you out of here.”

Lance had never been so grateful in his life for Keith’s hotheaded nature as he was when the remainder of the Truncata complied and began to follow him out of the room.

“Hey, Keith!” Lance shouted from the front of the group, “cover our asses, okay?”

Lance didn’t hear Keith, so much as he saw a flash of red and the drop of several sentries that had been on their tail. 

“Sharp work Samurai!”

Lance quickly guided the rest of the group towards the cave that Coran had assigned as the landing spot. Lance ushered them inside, waiting for them all to be at least a few feet within the cavern before turning on his mic.

“Okay Coran, they’re all here. We’ll head back to the Lions once you guys are ready for extraction.” 

Coran was quick to respond. 

“Already on our way Lance, just head back to the battle!”

Lance gave a quick confirmation before exiting the cavern and starting to sprint back towards the Lions original landing spot. After a few minutes, Lance ran into Keith, who had taken cover behind a downed ship, and looked a bit worse for wear. Upon approach, Lance noticed the slight trickle of blood coming from Keith’s side, and panic surged through him. 

“Fuck, Keith! Are you okay?” 

Keith responded with a look of surprise when Lance rushed over to him to inspect the injury, and uncharacteristically complied to letting Lance take a look. 

The wound was fairly shallow, really only a nick in the side, but enough to draw blood and intense discomfort.

“Shit Keith,” Lance breathed out slowly, his hand ghosting over the part of the armor that was undamaged. He looked up into Keith’s eyes, which had a painful intensity to them. Only then did he realize how intimately close he was, one hand resting on Keith’s hip and the other on his right arm. Lance barely had time to blush before Keith gave his own response. 

“You don’t have to worry about it, I’ve been hurt way worse before.”

There was a strange softness to Keith’s voice that enamored Lance so greatly he nearly missed the stinging comment tacked onto the end.

“Even when we weren’t fighting a war.”

Lance felt his stomach drop in empathy and sadness, mostly at the hard edges he sees in Keith when the words drip like poison from his tongue.

Lance want’s nothing more than to smooth out all those hard edges, to fix everything about Keith that broke somewhere in his dark past.

Keith gives Lance a sad smile and leaves the cover, heading back towards Red, and through that smile, Lance can see that the most beautiful star in the universe lives in Keith’s heart.


	4. The Games We Play (in the most literal of senses)

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Pidge comes up with a solution. Keith doesn't want to come out.

In a word, Lance was fucked. And in a few words, Keith was very, very fucked. 

A realization in a cave on a gathering mission made Keith realize a crucial aspect of his current relationship with Lance, that being that he wanted more. He wanted to hold him and kiss him and love him. He wanted to hold Lance in his arms and ensure that no force in the universe ever hurt him or took away the twinkle of innocence that still sparkled in his eyes. At first, this was . . . overwhelming. Keith knew he liked boys, he had known that for years. But this was the first time he’d ever seriously _liked_ someone. That in and of itself was a bit scary, but that’s all it was. Just a bit scary. Nothing he couldn’t handle. 

What was far more scary, however, was a liking a boy who a) he wasn’t sure liked boys, and b) he was almost certain didn’t like _trans boys_. Keith had enough dysphoria as it is, having to discretely readjust his binder during training and steal tampons from the med bay. He knew he would have to tell someone soon – the remaining testosterone tablets he had had with him in his bag when they had all initially boarded the Blue Lion had run out a week ago, and he was scrambling for a solution. 

He had enough to deal with without Lance rejecting him, and causing him to take another blow to his dwindling self-image.

Lance, on the other hand, was in complete denial. The fact that he liked Keith _like that_ had hit him like a wrecking ball, and it took everything in him to just act goddamn normal around the boy. Lance _knew_ that he liked Keith, but he still refused to admit it. Somehow, even in space, the disapproving glare on his father and poisonous words of God still infested his mind, spreading self-hatred like a disease. Lance found complete denial easier than having to face the fact that he might be a complete disappointment to his father. In a way, being further away from home only made him wants his papa’s approval more. 

So Lance avoided Keith. 

Keith tried to get closer to Lance, to see him more frequently, but he was afraid that if he pushed too hard he might accidentally end up outing himself and completely destroying any remaining thread of friendship between them. 

Both boys were petrified of the seemingly ominous consequences of being themselves.

And this behavior, this awkward shuffle of avoidance and isolation, caused a stir amongst the rest of the team. None of them really acknowledged it directly, but they each noticed it in a different way. Shiro and Allura talked quietly in the princess’s quarters at night about how this could affect the team dynamic, and what could be done to remedy it. Hunk made bigger and more extravagant meals, hoping that good food could lighten the atmosphere. Coran kept quiet about the missing sanitary supplies in the med bay, instead opting to restock them more frequently and study human (and Galra) anatomy.

Pidge schemed.

They knew something was up in more acute sense than anyone else and tried to solve that problem the best way they knew how – by tricking people into discretely talking about their problems. 

They had sensed the tension between Keith and Lance long before it had become this obvious, but only now did they go to Allura with and idea to play an ‘Earth team-building exercise’ that they described as being a good tool to reveal secrets and face tension in a group. Allura had agreed, hoping that something too familiar to the paladins would make it easier for them to open up. 

And that’s how Keith and Lance faced this newfound tension – in a game of truth or dare.

The paladins had been asked by Shiro to gather in the lounge area after dinner, and they had all done so (albeit a reluctantly on Lance’s part, as his number one priority was still to avoid Keith). Keith and Lance, the only two not in on the true nature of this exercise, were slightly surprised by the lack of both Coran and Allura at the impromptu meeting. 

It all became clear, however, when Pidge took the reins and announced was this evening’s activity was all about. 

“Okay, can you all sit in a circle? Good, great.” They instructed loudly from a position on the other side of the room, waiting until the other four were sat in a semi-circular shape before they joined.

“Okay, now, to be clear, Allura and Shiro have both agreed that this is a good idea and that it is _mandatory_ so there is absolutely no backing out, ‘kay?”

At this point, both Keith and Lance began to fear for their lives and their dignity. 

“We’re playing Truth or Dare.”

Pidge’s announcement caused Lance to groan while Keith rolled his eyes, secretly wishing to be anywhere but here.

Shiro spoke up at the clear signs of discontent, “No complaining Lance. Pidge is right, both Allura and I agreed to this, and you all have to participate.”

There was a certain desperate sternness in Shiro’s voice that was enough to quiet Lance’s disapproving moans into a pout.

And so the game had begun. 

It started out easy enough, with questions like “what food do you miss most?” and dares like “hold your breath for 20 seconds”. It was clear that everyone but Lance and Keith was purposefully making this easy as if to build up to something.

And with the next question, Pidge made it clear what they were building up to.

“Lance,” they turned towards him, “truth or dare?”

“Truth, I guess,” he was tracing circles on the floor with his index finger, largely unengaged with the activity.

“Okay,” Pidge sucked in a breath, “what’s going on between you and Keith?” 

Lance froze, his eyes widening. Both him and Keith had no idea what the right answer to that question even was. 

“I changed my mind,” Lance blurted out, “dare. I switch my answer to dare. Dare.”

Pidge rolled their eyes but allowed it to pass, “okay. I _dare_ you to go into a closet with Keith and talk this out. Neither or you can come out until you’ve come to an agreement.”

This time Keith also froze, a million things running through his head as Shiro walked over to them and ushered for them to stand up. Keith complied, almost on instinct, and after a minute of staring at the floor in anguish, Lance did too. The three of them walked outside the room and came to a halt in front of the door to a closet little ways away from the lounge. Shiro opened the closed door and ushered them inside.

“Seriously guys, you need to sort this out.”

And that was the last thing he said before he shut the door, dooming them to the most awkward conversation of their lives.

A small ceiling lamp gave them both enough light to see, enough light for Keith to notice how fidgety and uncomfortable Lance looked.

Keith sighed and decided that he needed to initiate the conversation. 

“Okay, I know things have been weird between us, and I don’t really know why, but – ”

Keith was abruptly cut off by Lance swooping forward and kissing him.

The kiss was short and chaste, but Keith smiled into it nonetheless, barely having time to give another response before Lance pulled back.

Keith smiled like an idiot, only managing to mumble out an “Oh.”

Lance looked almost mortified as if he hadn’t meant to do that _at all_ , but that expression soon melted away when Keith started kissing him again, and this time is was fantastic.

The melted into each other, Keith tasting Lance’s bubblegum lip scrub and Lance smelling Keith’s citrusy shampoo. They grabbed at the other like they were each a life line, Keith’s hands snaking into Lance’s hair, and Lance’s hands finding their home on Keith’s waist. The kissed, and all of a sudden all the colours in Lance’s eyes and all the stars in Keith’s heart combined to make the most beautiful galaxy. 

A galaxy Keith could have stared at forever, had it not been for the feeling of a hand going under his shirt, and inching up his chest. It took Keith a moment to register that if Lance’s hand moved any further it would feel his binder, and _oh shit he was not ready to come out right now_.

So Keith’s body reacted and pulled back abruptly and harshly, tears prickling in his eyes at the hurt look on Lance’s face.

“Keith, I - ”

But Keith was already running away, too afraid to try and explain himself or apologize. He ran and left Lance standing in the closet, confused and alone.


	5. The Colour Pink

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Keith gets help from someone unexpected and Lance falls in love.

Keith was . . . conflicted. Well, he was a little more than conflicted. He was absolutely head-over-heels in love with a boy whom he left standing confused in a closet due to his own fear of coming out. He was both excited and horrified at the realization of exactly how far he had fallen for the boy with the universe in his eyes. 

Lance was dying. Not literally, of course. But emotionally, _oh man_ , he had one foot in the grave. He had been terrified of liking Keith, terrified of truly liking a boy, even when so _so_ far away from him father. And now, now he was even more terrified that the boy he had been so scared of liking didn’t like him back. His heart beats like he’s dying and his lungs feel like they’re on fire. His puts thoughts of silky black hair and cool purple eyes to the back of his mind. He’s far too afraid of feeling all this. 

Keith is trying, he’s really trying. He’s trying to build up the courage to just tell Lance, to tell him that he likes him, and to tell him why he ran away from that closet in such a panic. He holds his breath every time Lance passes as if the words _“I’m trans”_ might accidentally tumble out of his mouth. He avoids eye contact with Lance, with _everyone_ , as if they somehow might see the secret he’s not ready to tell. 

It’s Coran, surprisingly enough, that finally approaches Keith. He’s sitting in one of the observatories in a more deserted part of the castle when he hears footsteps. It’s fairly late, and Keith assumes that it’s just Shiro going to get some water or train. Shiro hasn’t been sleeping well since the beginning of all this. Keith thinks it’s the trauma of what the Galra did to him.

But it’s not Shiro who walks into the observatory and sit’s down beside Keith. No, it’s Coran, and he has a sad smile on his face and a box in his lap.

“Keith, my dear boy, I don’t know how to put this delicately but . . .” he pauses in a very unnerving manner as if he’s just as nervous to say his sentence as Keith is to hear it, “I know you’ve been stealing from the med bay.” 

Keith freezes. He feels his stomach collapse in on itself and his breathing cease and his head spin. 

_Fuck. Fuck, shit._  

But before Keith has time to have a total breakdown or runaway, Coran continues. 

“It’s not a problem, but I was a tad curious as to why you had been taking the items you had been. I did some . . . research, into human anatomy, to see what you may need them for and came across something that seemed to make sense. I knew a few Alteans who were similar, people born in the wrong body. I just want to let you know Keith that it’s okay and that you can tell us, and . . . I wanted to give you this.”

He transfers the box he had been carrying onto Keith’s lap and gives him a warm smile. 

Keith feels the tension in his body alleviate and opens the box slowly as if it was delicate. 

Inside is a collection of objects – painkillers, tampons, and _oh my god_ , something with a label translated to read “testosterone”. 

“It’s the Altean equivalent of the human male hormone testosterone. I did a few tests, and it should work perfectly fine for humans as well. If you ever need anything, Keith, don’t hesitate to ask.” 

Joy flooded Keith’s system, and he threw himself as Coran in an (only slightly awkward) side hug. 

“Thank you, Coran. Thank you so much, god, you have no idea how much this means to me.” 

Coran smiled and returned the hug as tears rolled down Keith’s cheeks.

“Anytime my boy. Anytime.”

 

\----------  

 

Keith felt somewhat . . . empowered. He was back on T (or whatever the Altean equivalent was actually called) and he felt generally accepted (even if only Coran really knew his situation) and he was slowly getting more and more prepared to actually just _tell Lance_.

That was a simultaneously an exciting and terrifying thought. 

It was becoming a simultaneously exciting and terrifying _reality_.

Keith was currently standing outside Lance’s door, playing with his hands, trying to distract his mind from the terrifying part of this scenario before he knocked on the door. 

He, however, had no time to do that, because Lance’s door swooshed open, and the boy he was so nervous to talk to stood in its frame. 

Lance stared at Keith, a sad and scared look in his beautiful blue eyes (which looked somewhat darker than normal) and uttered a single word.

“Oh.” 

Keith swallowed, and opened his mouth to speak when Lance continued, 

“I get it, Keith. I fucked up and you don’t like me, and yeah, the kiss was a mistake, and can we just forget about it? I’m not gay anyway, so-”

“I’M TRANS!” 

He couldn’t take it anymore. He couldn’t take Lance avoiding him and thinking it was his fault. It made him feel like he was going to explode and, in a way, he just did. 

Lance’s voice became small and significantly warmer than before. 

“What?” 

Keith swallowed again and trained his eyes on the ground by Lance’s feet. 

“I’m transgender. I’m a trans guy. I bind and shit, so when your hand went up my shirt, I freaked out. I wasn’t ready to come out then, but I shouldn’t have left like that. I’m sorry.” 

He looked up hesitantly, only to see relief flood over Lance’s face and the brightness return to his eyes. He barely had time to take all of it in before he was wrapped in a tight hug. 

“Oh thank god.”

Keith hugged back and nudged Lance as a signal to explain his previous statement. 

“I . . . I thought you hated me. I was so scared to like you Keith, and I was fucking terrified that you didn’t like me back. Knowing that isn’t the case. . . that’s such a fucking relief.”

Keith hugged Lance a little tighter, and uttered out a question in a choked whisper. 

“So you don’t care that I’m trans?”

Lance pulled Keith further into his chest, seemingly trying to smother him with love.

“Keith, I couldn’t care less. You’re still Keith. You’re still a dude, if that’s what’s you’re worried about. I still like you.” 

The tears that Keith had been blinking back start rolling down his cheeks, and he pulls back from Lance's chest, settling on holding his hands in between them. 

“You don’t care?” 

Lance smiles and gives his hands a squeeze.

“Not a bit.” 

The other bit of what Lance said settled in Keith’s mind. 

“You like me?”

His voice came out much squeakier than expected, and he blushes, his own cheeks matching the hue that also brushed Lance’s. 

Lance looks away nervously, a smile creeping onto his face. 

“Yeah, you idiot.”

Keith moved his hands to cup Lance’s cheeks and turns his face so that they’re looking each other in the eyes. 

“I like you too.” 

And Lance kissed him for the second time, lightly at first, before pulling Keith into his room, letting the door close behind them. Keith felt his back hit the wall beside the doorframe as Lance started kissing him with increasing ferocity.

Keith pulled back briefly, and searched Lance’s face, taking in his freckles, his smile, and, _oh god_ , his eyes. His eye’s that held all the colours of the universe. 

Jesus Christ, he was beautiful. 

“What are you doing?” 

Keith smiled back at Lance and pulled him back down so that their lips were barely brushing. 

“Looking at you.”

Keith took another moment to appreciate the red hot blush that spread across Lance’s cheeks before pushing his own head up to meet his lips again. 

Keith feels Lance move against him, feels his smile get wider, feels how much he loves him. 

Lance feel’s Keith underneath him, feels his soft hair and his warm hands. His heart beats faster than it ever has before, and his head spins with the intense euphoria of the moment. Is this what love is? 

Keith pulls back for a moment and catches his breath, and smiles at Lance. A beautiful smile that lights up the room with the power of all the stars in the galaxy.

_Is this what love is?_

Yes, Lance decides. Yes, it is.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Last chapter will be posted this weekend (it's just kinda an epiloguey thing). Let me know if you want me to write more klance/voltron stuff in the future!


	6. The Hereafter

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Love is a wonderful thing

Life was warm. 

Not physically, of course, because seasons and weather didn't really affect you when in the cold vacuum of space, but emotionally, life was very warm. Warm as in full of _good_ emotions; full of laughter and love and openness and understanding. Life was warm in the way the color yellow is warm, or the way a good book is warm, or in the way Lance's smile was warm.

Keith felt warm.

At the moment this sensation was both emotional and physical, for at the moment Keith was curled into Lance's chest, lying in his bed, and absorbing this very warm moment. Lance was carding his fingers through Keith's hair and was recounting a story of how his little brother has accidentally stolen the next door neighbors dog. Keith was only half listening, more focused on the way Lance's face animated when he reached certain parts of the story. 

Eventually, Lance looked down and met Keith's eyes, giving him a curious look. 

"What are you doing?"

Keith smiled and nuzzled into Lance's chest. 

"Just looking at you."

It was something that Keith had said many times since they had gotten together, but it never failed to make Lance blush. 

"You can't just say things like that."

Lance commented this in a grumpy tone but was undermined by his telling smile. Keith reached up and cupped Lance's face, stroking his thumb across his cheek bone. 

"Why not?"

Lance looked away, his cheeks puffing out in mock frustration. 

"Becuase."

Keith just smiled, gently turning Lance's face back towards his so that their eyes met. 

"You love it though."

Lance's expression softened, and he leaned down to gently meet Keith's lips. 

"Yeah. I do."

And Keith kissed him again, lingering for longer this time. It remained short and sweet, and Keith sighed and settled back into Lance's chest when it was over, focusing on the beat of Lance's heart and his rhythmic breathing. 

This moment was warm.

It was, for lack of a better word, perfect. 

Keith would have described the moment as something beyond perfection if his vocabulary had allowed him to so, but for now, perfect would have to do. He looked up at Lance, looked at his bright smile and messy hair, but mostly Keith looked at his eyes. Keith looked at his eyes like they were the most beautiful thing in the universe. Like Lance was the most beautiful thing in the universe. 

He loved those eyes. 

He loved Lance. 

Though neither of them had really said it, he hoped that Lance knew this. And if he didn't, he would now. 

"You know I love you, right?"

To Lance, Keith's question came out of nowhere, and it made Lance's face deepen an additional few shades. 

"Um, I, uh . . . , I mean, . . . um . . ."

Keith once again reached up to Lance's face, using his hand to anchor Lance somewhat. This made him calm down a bit, an easy smile returning to his face. 

"I guess I do."

And he kissed Keith again, this time pulling him up into his lap so Keith was straddling him. Keith wrapped his thighs tightly around Lance's waist, and pulled him up a bit, moving so that his back was against the wall. Lance's hands traveled to the back of Keith's neck, pulling him towards him as if all Lance needed was for them to just be  _closer_. Keith obliged, allowing himself to turn to putty in Lance's hands as he bit his bottom lip and tried to convey all the love he had for Lance through his lips. The kiss didn't last a terribly long time before they pulled back, foreheads touching and breaths mingling, but to the two of them, it might as well have lasted a lifetime. 

Lance looked timidly into Keith's eyes and gave him the brightest smile in the universe, lifting a hand so he could brush a loose piece of hair out of Keith's face. 

"I love you too."

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> That's the end! Sorry it took so long - I have it written on a piece of scrap paper for almost two weeks and never had time to just sit down and type it out. I'm planning on writing more klance stuff in the future, hopefully with pore actual story and plot as this was just kinda a fluffy mess.


End file.
